Larry’s Cà Phê

Three coffees, three regions

Larry’s Cà Phê builds its menu on a map of Vietnam. Three drinks carry it: egg custard coffee from the north, salted coffee from the center, and the Vietnamese iced latte from the south, which is the version most Americans meet first. Ordering all three in sequence is the clearest way to understand what the shop is doing, because the differences between them are regional rather than decorative. Matcha runs alongside the coffee for anyone not drinking it, but the Vietnamese coffee program is the reason the place exists.

A shop named for a teacher

The name is the story. Larry was a Brooklyn math teacher, remembered well enough in Park Slope that the café carries his name and describes itself as bringing his spirit back to the neighborhood. The founder built it as an homage to his Vietnamese heritage and his father's legacy, and as the café he wanted his community to have. That shows in who turns up: teachers, adoptees and neighbors, in a room that is warm, quiet and set up for people to stay in. Its community life has run across East Williamsburg as well as Park Slope, and it works as a community project as much as a coffee counter.

Order the egg custard coffee first

Start with the egg custard coffee. It is the most distinctive drink on the board and the one that explains why a Vietnamese coffee shop is a different proposition from an espresso bar, since the custard is built into the drink rather than poured over it. Follow it with the salted coffee, then the Vietnamese iced latte, and the regional structure of the menu comes into focus. Yogurt with purple sticky rice is the food order to add: tart against sweet, with the rice giving it texture, and it belongs with the coffee rather than standing apart from it. Take the drinks slowly. Speed is not what this counter is for.